Francis A. Wilson

The truth is out there: the search for emancipatory principles in information systems design

Examines how information systems design may enable progress towards the “ideal speech situation” where free and undistorted communication between equally empowered agents may take place and result in a consensus that has been rationally negotiated. Considers the assumptions of several current information systems design proposals which claim to encourage social reflexivity among the design participants. Develops an analysis of whether or not a systems based solution may be developed which is truly emancipatory for the individual living and working within an organization.

Cultural control within the virtual organization

New forms of information technology, together with recent developments in management theory and practice, have resulted in considerable debate concerning the social and technical implications of the emergent form of computer-dependent virtual organization. This paper identifies and reviews some theoretical developments central to the critical analysis of the use of combined computer-based systems and quality management applications. While the advocates of these trends propose that the emergent organizational configurations provide employees with the opportunity for participation in decision-making, resulting in ‘empowerment’ and the possibility of personal fulfilment, here it is argued that the virtual organization may result in a progressive formalisation of social relationships which will erode the meaning of true employee participation. It is suggested that the combination of networked computer-based systems and the psychological techniques which underpin the quality management methodologies, do not replace the technologies of control identifiable in the principles of scientific management and Fordism. Instead they provide an enhanced, more insidious form of technical and cultural control designed to engage the acquiescence of employees in order to maintain the efficiency of the organization.

Planning for the market?: enterprise resource planning systems and the contradictions of capital

Enterprise Resource Planning is the most overarching attempt so far to control a firms economic environment using information technology. An analysis of its functions, potential, and limitations thus requires an economic model that provides a conceptual framework for understanding the enterprises goals, activities and environment. Marxs analysis of the processes of accumulation and circulation of capital is used here to assess ERP systems, with the conclusion that, rather than being a fad, ERPs attempt to answer certain general problems of capital accumulation that are particularly acute today. Their limitations are shown to be inherent in the capital form itself, in particular the dependence of capital on market relations in exchange.

The socio‐cybernetic paradox of the networked firm

Illustrates the socio‐cybernetic basis and the contradictions inherent in the use of total quality management methodologies to support computer‐based information system implementation and usage. A resonant theme within information system theory and practice in the 1990s has been the desire to identify the key features of the “virtual” or the “networked” organization. Many descriptions centre on ideas of how to rebuild the firm, create a new configuration which removes lengthy managerial hierarchies and develop an organization characterized by a narrow, computer‐supported managerial structure and multiple horizontal linkages both within the organization and with its customers. Describes the attempt of a service‐sector organization to implement such a programme of change. This involved both the introduction of new information technology and a programme for organizational restructuring which was designed to establish an organizational vision and culture of customer service and create new market relations within the organization.

Deny All Knowledge? Examining the Epistemological Assumptions of Anti-Foundationalist Information Systems Design Methodologies

This paper identifies the interest of information systems theoreticians and practitioners in research and methodological design as a conceptual analytic enterprise that transcends the assumption that its principles are founded upon scientifically derived formalisms. The antifoundationalist model of information system research and methodological design is one in which questions of validity can neither be posed nor answered in reference to a scientific, extracontextual reality but are intelligible and debatable only within the precincts of the contexts or situations in which they are derived. This paper debates whether anti-foundationalism in information system design as a model of epistemology provides practitioners and researchers with directions for achieving the epistemological state it describes and whether, if practitioners and researchers are able to learn and adhere to the principles of anti-foundationalism, this will provide an improved methodology for information system project development.

Surveillance and the reengineering of commitment within the virtual organization

New forms of information technology, together with recent developments in management theory and practice, have resulted in considerable debate concerning the social and technical implications of the emergent form of computer-dependent virtual organization. This paper identifies, and reviews, some theoretical developments central to the critical analysis of the use of combined computer-based systems and quality management applications. While the advocates of these applications propose that the emergent organizational configurations provide employees with the opportunity for participation in decision-making, resulting in ‘empowerment’ and the possibility of personal fulfillment, here it is argued that the virtual organization may result in a progressive commodification of social relationships which will erode the meaning of true employee participation. It is suggested that the combination of networked computerbased systems and the psychological techniques which underpin the quality management methodologies, rather than replacing the technologies of control identifiable in the principles of scientific management and Fordism, provide an enhanced, more insidious form of technical and cultural control designed to engage the acquiescence of employees in order to maintain the efficiency of the organization. Permission to make digital/hard copies of all or part of this material for personalor classroomuseis grantedwithout fee provided that the copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage, the copyright notice, the title of the publication and its date appear, and notice is given that copyright ia by permission of the ACM, Inc. To copy otherwise, to republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires specific permission and/or fee. SIGCPR/ SIG~lS ’96, Denver Colorado USA @1996 ACM 0-89791-782-0/96/04. .

Computer based systems—total quality management and new organizational structures

3.50 INTRODUCTION Over the last decade a pivotal theme, within management and information systems research, has been the identification of new industrial methodologies and technologies which allow for the creation of greater workforce commitment and flexibility. The hope is that the new information-based technologies will allow for the tenets and practices of Taylorism and Fordism, once the basis for industrial development, to be swept away enabling the creation of an environment of commitment and trust. This would be exemplified by ‘empowered’ semi-autonomous units of production where a highly trained and skilled workforce can exercise freedom and authority within a decentralised mode of control and coordination. To support this perspective a number of managerial techniques such as Total Quality Management and Business Processes Engineering have arisen which claim to describe the ways in which organizations may provide this autonomy while increasing productivity. A parallel theme has been a development of critical approaches to these events which suggest that the use of such techniques rather than providing radical alternatives to the precepts of scientific management merely reinforce it. Central to this perspective is the proposition that increasingly powerful computer-based systems (CBS) coupled with quality management (QM) methodologies provide enhanced control over workforce activities and provide management with improved surveillance and disciplinary mechanisms. This paper contends that many of the new flexible forms of both production and organizational structure, which are exemplified by the concept of the decentralized ‘virturd organization’, may be shown to be dependent upon both highly centralized systems and disciplinary mechanisms for their essentially integrated command,

New Service Development: From Panoramas to Precision

The increasing adoption of computer technology within service sector organizations has generated many studies of how effective use may be made of such systems. In this paper an analysis is made of one such implementation and an appraisal made of the way in which the interaction between the total quality management “philosophy” and computer based systems may evolve new forms of managerial structures and controls.